Assessing the threat of <i>Yersinia pestis</i> harboring a multi-resistant IncC plasmid and the efficacy of an antibiotic targeting LpxC.

ABSTRACT: Self-transmissible IncC plasmids rapidly spread multidrug resistance in many medically important pathogens worldwide. A large plasmid of this type (pIP1202, ~80 Kb) has been isolated in a clinical isolate of Yersinia pestis, the agent of plague. Here, we report that pIP1202 was highly stable in Y. pestis-infected mice and fleas and did not reduce Y. pestis virulence in these animals. Although pIP1202 inflicted a fitness cost in fleas (but not in mice) when the insects fed on blood containing a mixture of plasmid-free and plasmid-bearing strains, such a co-infection scenario has never been reported in nature, indicating that pIP1202 could persist in Y. pestis strains. Despite being resistant to commonly used antibiotic treatments, we show that plague caused by

SUBMITTER: Lemaitre N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11881579 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature